The History Of Herodotus Volume 1 of 2

Page: 64

186. These defences she cast round her city from the depth; and she made
the following addition which was dependent upon them:—The city was
in two divisions, and the river occupied the space between; and in the
time of the former rulers, when any one wished to pass over from the one
division to the other, he had to pass over in a boat, and that, as I
imagine, was troublesome: she however made provision also for this; for
when she was digging the basin for the lake she left this other monument
of herself derived from the same work, that is, she caused stones to be
cut of very great length, and when the stones were prepared for her and
the place had been dug out, she turned aside the whole stream of the river
into the place which she had been digging; and while this was being filled
with water, the ancient bed of the river being dried up in the meantime,
she both built up with baked bricks after the same fashion as the wall the
edges of the river, where it flows through the city, and the places of
descent leading from the small gateways to the river; and also about the
middle of the city, as I judge, with the stones which she had caused to be
dug out she proceeded to build a bridge, binding together the stones with
iron and lead: and upon the top she laid squared timbers across, to remain
there while it was daytime, over which the people of Babylon made the
passage across; but at night they used to take away these timbers for this
reason, namely that they might not go backwards and forwards by night and
steal from one another: and when the place dug out had been made into a
lake full of water by the river, and at the same time the bridge had been
completed, then she conducted the Euphrates back into its ancient channel
from the lake, and so the place dug out being made into a swamp was
thought to have served a good purpose, and there had been a bridge set up
for the men of the city.

187. This same queen also contrived a snare of the following kind:—Over
that gate of the city through which the greatest number of people passed
she set up for herself a tomb above the very gate itself. And on the tomb
she engraved writing which said thus: "If any of the kings of Babylon who
come after me shall be in want of wealth, let him open my tomb and take as
much as he desires; but let him not open it for any other cause, if he be
not in want; for that will not be well." 191 This tomb was
undisturbed until the kingdom came to Dareios; but to Dareios it seemed
that it was a monstrous thing not to make any use of this gate, and also,
when there was money lying there, not to take it, considering that the
money itself invited him to do so. Now the reason why he would not make
any use of this gate was because the corpse would have been above his head
as he drove through. He then, I say, opened the tomb and found not indeed
money but the corpse, with writing which said thus: "If thou hadst not
been insatiable of wealth and basely covetous, thou wouldest not have
opened the resting-places of the dead."